Category: Self-Editing

Word Confusion: Hypotenuse versus Hypothesis

Word Confusion: Hypotenuse versus Hypothesis

Home ➢ Author Resources ➢ Word Confusion ➢ Hypotenuse versus Hypothesis “That’s my hypotenuse.” That sentence, uttered by a character on a TV show, reminded me how useful it can be in establishing a character’s education level as well as how highly they think of themselves. Lord knows it was not the correct choice. This word confusion hypotenuse vs hypothesis certainly forced me to think about the spelling, lol. A hypotenuse is one thing: The longest side of a right triangle, opposite the right angle. That’s it. A hypothesis is an educated guess or prediction about the relationship between two variables, an idea to be tested, not proven. It must be a testable statement, something that you can support or falsify with observable evidence. Return to top Word Confusions . . . . . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end. If you found this post on “Hypotenuse […]